On May 31 and June 1, the final of the eleventh edition of the event for entrepreneurial ideas of students "Innovation Academy", organized by the innovation agency Innovation Starter, was held at the Hilton-Sofia Hotel. In this year's competition for youth entrepreneurial ideas, more than 30 serious projects participated, of which 9 reached the final. Two teams with an equal number of points took first place in the Innovation Academy 2024.
Prize winners
The first team is the educational startup Education+ - with the students of Finance and Business Administration from the American University in Blagoevgrad Natalia Vasileva and Maria Nikolova. They are creating a platform for youth opportunities that attacks the problem of student unemployment in Bulgaria and presents "youth for youth" all opportunities for internships, scholarships, paid youth projects in a modern and interactive way on social media.
The second team, which qualified with an equal number of points for the first place, is MetalLbas Engineering with the students from the Faculty of Physics of Sofia University "St. Kliment Ohridski" Maria Eneva and Nikolay Nikolov. They have the ambitious task of popularizing the topic of metamaterials in Bulgaria. Metamaterials are composite materials with predefined properties and can make surfaces invisible, structures stronger, foundations more flexible, and more. They are yet to enter mass use, as more environmentally friendly and quality substitutes for our planet's depleting natural resources.
The biotech start-up ENTHELA, which was presented by the students Angel Hristov, a student majoring in Forestry at the Forestry University, and Martin Nedev, a student majoring in Business and Entrepreneurship at the American University in Blagoevgrad, took second place. They are working on a biostimulant based on a nitrogen-eating bacterium that would allow farmers to replace up to 50% of nitrogen fertilizer use in agriculture while improving their soil fertility without losing production.
In third place was the SPRI team with their idea for a machine for 100% recycling and decomposition of solar panels. Bozhidar Varbanov, student in Automation, Information and Control Technology at the University of Mining and Geology "St. Ivan Rilski" and Miroslav Ivanov, a student majoring in Electric Vehicles at the "Todor Kableshkov" Higher Transport School in Sofia, won over the jury with a detailed financial plan, a precise project scheme and an excellent presentation of the idea.
Finalist teams win financial and incentive prizes and participation in the Innovation Starter accelerator program.
Lecturers and partners
Lectures at the event were given by international guests from Israel and Great Britain - Oren Simanyan, investor, entrepreneur, founder of Colosseum Sport, Petya Rasheva, co-founder of Stanford Club of Bulgaria, Maria Minerikova, Director of Business Development at Fetch.ai, an innovation laboratory based in Cambridge.
In 2024, the Innovation Academy will be implemented with the financial support of the European Investment Bank, Aurubis Bulgaria, Vivacom, part of the United Group, NESCAFÉ® Dolce Gusto®, LUOIL, Konica Minolta Bulgaria, Peysera Bulgaria, Information Service AD and others.
The project is organized in partnership with 16 Bulgarian universities and the Council of Rectors in Bulgaria. ESGnews.bg was a media partner of the event.